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| Press Conference for the Florida Project – Nov. 15, 1965 |
Walt Disney and Riverfront Square
Part 10 – Legacies
By Todd James Pierce
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During Walt’s life, there was a saying around studio hallways: no Disney project truly dies; it simply re-emerges in a new form. That is to say, though Riverfront Square was never built, design elements later appeared in other Disney projects.
Over the course of two years, as Riverfront Square was designed, two attractions slowly merged into one: a true-life adventure attraction in which guests journeyed through a Louisiana Bayou to glimpse alligators joined with a pirate grotto attraction in which guests witnessed the adventures of Jean Lafitte and other nineteenth-century pirates. The end result, Pirates of the Caribbean became one of the most famous attractions ever designed by Disney. Without Riverfront Square, Pirates of the Caribbean (as we know it at Disneyland) may have never existed as a Louisiana boat excursion. It may have simply remained a pirate adventure—as originally planned—without the Louisiana swamp to provide the initial atmosphere. Likewise, New Orleans Square (at Disneyland) most likely shared many design conceits with the New Orleans sections of Riverfront Square.
The Audio-Animatronic history of St. Louis would never be built, but elements of that attraction would influence later Disney shows. The rotating side stages, initially conceived for Riverfront Square, later became a central design component of Country Bear Jamboree. Likewise the Disney plans to build Audio-Animatronic figures of Mark Twain and Will Rogers to tell the story of American history reemerged fifteen years later as part of the American Adventure, an Audio-Animatronic presentation at EPCOT Center.
August Busch appeared so impressed with the Disney plans that a few years after seeing them, he opened his own small amusement park in Los Angeles, on brewery land his family had owned for decades. The park featured a monorail and a boat ride, as well as elaborate gardens and bird aviaries. Guests were given a tour of the Busch brewery and offered complimentary beer. Though Busch wasn’t able to hire Disney’s team to design the park, he was at least able to hire Bill Evans to create the gardens, the same man who oversaw much of the landscape design at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
On October 25, 1965, St. Louis completed the Gateway Arch, with the final 10-ton segment hoisted into place 630-feet above ground. The following year, less than a mile away, Busch Stadium opened, an enormous structure capable of seating 60,000 fans. But the city and the CCRC struggled to find a replacement project for the super-block of Riverfront Square. In retrospect, perhaps the best plan would’ve been for the CCRC to revive their initial designs for an outdoor mall filled with local shops, restaurants, theaters and bars. But here, too, the influence of Disney must have taken hold. Instead of creating a sensible community mall, capable of serving the food and shopping needs of tourists and residents alike, the city and the CCRC were now intent on building a spectacle to rival the Disney park once designed for their city. Disney had once promised to bring their attractions from the New York Fair to St. Louis, so a relatively new Mayor, Alfonso Juan Cervantes looked to the Fair for inspiration. The plan he developed was truly odd.
Under Cervantes’ guidance, the city formed a nonprofit foundation to purchase the Spanish Pavilion from the New York World’s Fair once the Fair finished its run. The foundation also purchased a replica of Christopher Columbus’ flagship, the Santa Maria, from the Fair, with the idea of docking it on the Mississippi, not far from the Spanish Pavilion’s new home. It took four years to build the structure to house the Pavilion, as well as reassemble the Pavilion in St. Louis. The city projected the exhibit would receive two million visitors a year—that is, roughly the same number that Disney hoped to find inside its indoor theme park. Cervantes advertised that the Pavilion would honor the city’s history—specifically, a brief period (32 years) during the late 1700s when the city was under the authority of Spain. The Pavilion opened with a large parade and initially saw crowds surge through its doors. One month after opening, during a thunderstorm, the Santa Maria sank (and was later raised from the river floor). One year later crowds dipped to such low levels that the foundation overseeing the Pavilion was forced to file for bankruptcy.
After leaving the St. Louis project, Walt Disney quickly focused his attention on Florida. He wanted to build not only a resort, but also an experimental city he called EPCOT, a project he hoped would become his legacy. The Disney team had expended thousands of dollars—probably hundreds of thousands—in the design of Riverfront Square, but there was a human cost associated with the project’s closure as well. Though Walt Disney did not understand that he was sick—cancer was already building in his lungs—eighteen months after he issued his final statement about Riverfront Square, he would pass on. By the time Walt left Riverfront Square, he had given up on his plan to build a series of Circlevision theaters in key cities across North America and overseas. More importantly, Riverfront Square represented Walt’s best chance to reconnect with the geography of his boyhood.
Over the previous five years, Walt had repeatedly looked for ways to step back into Missouri—with projects in St. Louis, Kansas City, even Marceline, where he spent his young boyhood. For Florida, Walt and his team would design new riverboats, just like those that once muscled up the Mississippi. They would even create a muddy stretch of water, just like the river that curved past St. Louis. But never again would Walt have another opportunity to connect in a significant way to the land that haunted his dreams, that stretch of Midwestern childhood in the center of America. He would let that dream fall away as he entered the final year of his life, not realizing he was trading away his personal ambitions for Missouri in order to create a new resort that, one day, would be known around the world.
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With this, I wrap up the series on Riverfront Square, offering (what I believe is) the most complete image so far published of this unusual park that Walt Disney designed yet never built. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed pulling it all together.
So now I have one question for you, loyal DHI readers: if the CCRC and St. Louis had found the money to fund construction, do you believe this indoor amusement park would’ve proved a success? Three things to consider: (a) The Baby Boomers which supported Disneyland’s early financial success would’ve been teenagers and young adults by the time Riverfront Square opened. (b) The Disney project in Florida would’ve likely opened as a resort destination, even if the CCRC funded plans for Riverfront Square, possibly dividing the American audience for a Midwest and/or East Coast Disneyland. (c) The concept of an indoor amusement park would’ve been new and therefore risky.
Post up your comments. Anyone can post, even without a Google account: just select “name” or “anonymous” from the pull-down list. See you in a few weeks. –TJP
As a Missouri resident for over 50 years and a St. Louis resident for the last 30, I would like to believe this would have done more than survived and even flourished. I think a lot would’ve depended on how the rest of St. Louis developed around this Disney complex. Downtown St. Louis has long been in need of more development both for out of town tourists and locals, alike. With something as well thought out as this Disney indoor park would’ve been, I would like to think that more attractions would’ve rallied around and made St. Louis a destination town and continued to bring more crowds in to bring more and more interest into the area, just as Disneyland did for Anaheim and WDW did for Orlando. Even though the footprint covers less acreage, when you multiply it by 5 levels, it would be a pretty large area to cover in a day or so. With it including 3 of my favorite attractions (Peter Pan’s Flight, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean), I’m sure I would’ve had a season pass and attended as often as possible. Probably would’ve helped me realize a dream of working for Disney, which is hard to do from the Midwest! Anyway, it’s a fun thing to fantasize about! Thanks so much for posting these wonderful articles!
I believe this development would not have been a long term success. The biggest issue, as I see it, is lack of room to expand. The tight infrastructure would also make it difficult to upgrade or replace existing attractions.
Until your St. Louis series, I had never heard of the earliest origins of “Pirates”… very interesting. One thing I wonder about is the building of the walk-thru version at Disneyland… did this coincide (more or less) with the plans for Missouri? There was certainly major construction underway in New Orleans Square by 1962 or ’63. I LOVE the bayou scenes at the beginning of the attraction… ever since I first experienced that ride as a kid, the drowned cypresses, fireflies, and clouds scudding through the night sky were a wonderful, evocative, strangely peaceful prelude to what was to come.
The Busch Gardens tie-in is neat as well; my grandparents lived only a few miles from that park, so we went there often.
It’s a shame that the Riverfront area (with the Spanish Pavilion) did not succeed… the public is fickle.
THANKS for this wonderful series, I can only imagine how much time and effort went into researching this little-known piece of Disney history.
Hey MP,
Thanks for the note. Much appreciated.
Both the Haunted Mansion and Pirates were developed in the same way. They started as attractions underdevelopment solely for Disneyland. Both go back to the mid-1950s. Then during the early 1960s, they were more or less developed in tandem with overlapping projects in St. Louis. It’s clear that the St. Louis version of the Mansion would have touches of local color most likely not used at Disneyland. More importantly, the St. Louis development radically changed the way that Walt pursued Pirates at Disneyland, combining the bayou with the Caribbean show into a single attraction. St. Louis probably had less of an influence on Mansion as it was ultimately built at Disneyland.
Todd
I just now read here about Riverfront Square, and a bit of the origin of Pirates. I would like to share my experience of my first time to sit in a boat for the Pirates of the Caribbean. We lived not too far from Disneyland, so we often were along when out-of-town guests came. On one trip when I was 12 or so, we were walking through the new area called New Orleans Square, and saw this short line of people moving into a building with the sign “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN” over it. Sounded good for a 12 year old boy!
We followed the line inside, but I saw nothing but darkness, and boats floating along. No one had heard of this ride – no one knew what it was about. We were loaded into a boat, and launched into a lagoon. Dark. Quiet (A sit-down restaurant on the other side of the water signaled B-o-r-i-n-g ride to me.)
OK, the firefly thing was neat. A banjo player? Not much of a ride. Ho hum – 5 minutes on the outside, and back to our D-land visit. We floated through a brick archway Sewers? Then we saw the skull, heard rushing water, and heard the fell voice, “Dead Men Tell No Tales! Ha ha ha ha!” Better. DROP/splash and we saw roots! but still just floating along, now in an underground tunnel. Nothing exciting here!
More waterfall – DROP/splash! Now it was more like it! caverns! Set pieces – A crab, the skeletal pirates, more and more treasure! But, no real action. (We now know there is a soundtrack. The day we rode, the Yo Ho Pirates Life song played throughout the ride.) Occasional treasure, but mostly darkness.
Then suddenly, real action! A pirate ship was trading shots with the fort! The town overrun with pirates partying! I still remember the pirate sitting on the bridge. We were surprised to really see hair on his leg. Fire all around! Passing the jail, we saw the climbing ramp, and the end of the ride. Quite the fake-out!
Now everyone knows the Pirates ride, and the 999 ghosts of the Haunted Mansion. But, there are a lucky few who had the privilege of riding a major Disney ride without knowing what we were getting into. Unforgettable!